


The Volturi Strike Back

by MysteriousNyx



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Cullen Coven - Freeform, Half-Vampires, Kidnapping, Olympic Coven - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Quileute wolves - Freeform, Shapeshifters - Freeform, The Cullens and the Volturi fight again, Vampires, Volturi, Werewolves, Wolf Pack, blood-drinking vampires, the Volturi return to America
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:20:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27620599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteriousNyx/pseuds/MysteriousNyx
Summary: Aro wants Edward, Bella, and Alice to join him more than he ever has before. And he'll use all the talents at his disposal to get to them.
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan
Kudos: 6





	1. What have I gotten myself into?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys!
> 
> I've been on a Twilght binge lately, and got to thinking. Aro wouldn't just simply give up his pursuit of Alice, Edward, and now Bella so easily. So this is what happens when he tries to get a little craftier about it, using some new members of the Volturi to do so. Please enjoy!

I usually didn’t pay much attention to what the Volturi said in the throne room, but today I did.

They usually talked too fast for me to understand anyways, their vampire ears able to pick up their fast speech much faster than I could. Today, they were more relaxed. They talked softly, so I was just barely able to hear pieces of their conversation, but what I did hear piqued my interest.

“…talents could bolster the guard, if we were to change them,” Elena was telling the masters.

Aro laughed, delighted. “Come, child. Let me see what you have seen.”

Elena’s heels clicked over the marble floor, walking over to Aro.

“Ah, how wonderful!” his shout was joyous. “Please, bring them to us.”

“Alessia!” Elena shouted for me from the throne room.

I got up, walking quickly down the hallway that separated my reception desk from the large, open room. “Yes?”

I tried not to be intimidated, but it was hard. I felt myself tense up automatically, some base instinct warning me I was in trouble. I was in a room full of vampires that ranged from hundreds to thousands of years old. They were all looking at me, though I tried not to look too directly at them. It wasn’t very often the human staff got to see the masters. Thousands of years old, all of them. They had the same papery, almost translucent pale skin. Aro had a look of excitement on his face – the excitement of immortal life had not yet faded for him. The others, Marcus and Caius, seemed to have a perpetually bored look etched into their faces.

“Hello, dear! So wonderful to have you here.” Aro’s grin widened as he beckoned for me to approach him. “Come, let us look at you.”

I approached the high table cautiously, trying not to let my steps waver. He extended his hand, expecting me to place mine in his. I did, not sure what to expect. I knew Aro had a greater power than a regular vampire, as a lot of the Volturi did, but I wasn’t quite sure what. He looked at our joined hands for a moment, concentrating hard, before snapping his head back up with another delighted exclamation. “Just wonderful. Such potential! Thank you, my dear.”

They dismissed me. I bowed to the masters, as was custom, before leaving the room and heading back to reception.

I let my thoughts preoccupy me. Elena had been talking about changing, meaning changing some of us humans into vampires. They usually kept a small human staff around, and Elena’s talent was to see who might make a gifted vampire, and who might not. Those who might not often found themselves serving another purpose to the Volturi eventually – as food. I’d known that when I’d taken a job with them, as a receptionist for the ancient castle. My job was just a front, of course – adding an air of legitimacy to whatever story Heidi had concocted to lure the large group of people to the castle. The large feasts happened rarely, only once or twice a year. Otherwise, individuals were lured in for the Volturi who did not leave the castle, or they went outside the walls of Volterra to hunt their own prey. The locals were never part of the ‘feasts’ that happened.

I knew the risk of becoming vampire food, and yet I did it anyways. Why? I didn’t really have a specific reason for wanting to become a vampire, other than the thought of my own mortality absolutely terrified me. That was reason enough, I thought. My family was already gone – all of my grandparents were dead, my dad had split when I was a few months old, and my mom and brother died in a freak car accident about a year before I moved from London back to Italy – so I wouldn’t really be missed. I guess all the death around me had made me acutely aware of my own pending death, and the very thought was enough to send me into a panic.

If there was a way to avoid that, I wanted in.

None of the residents of Volterra knew that the ancient ones were still here, of course, but instead believed them to be martyred thousands of years ago in a crusade against vampires. In truth, the Volturi had driven the old Romanian vampires from the country and took over their rule for themselves. They’d remained ever since, usually hidden in the unseen depths of the castle.

My musings were interrupted by the clear ringing of Heidi’s voice. She was telling the group about the historic architecture of the building as she led them towards the throne room. “Good morning, Alessia,” she greeted me, beaming a radiant smile my way.

“Ciao, Heidi. Welcome to Volterra, everyone!” I smiled at the group as they took in the castle, and promptly ignored their screams that began as soon as the doors shut behind Heidi. They didn’t last long, in any case – the frenzied vampires did not waste any time in beginning their meal.

The rest of my day went by quite simply. Heidi had come up with another method to lure the next group in – she liked to have the big feasts planned well in advance. This time we would advertise as a tourist destination for large groups. She put me to work making up the ads, and I worked on them until it was time to go home for the night. I owned an apartment not too far from the city centre, and was able to easily walk to and from work every day. It was small, but that was fine by me – the rent was cheap, and I didn’t have a whole lot of stuff anyways.

My evening routine was largely the same – get home, cook supper, and either read a book or watch tv before taking a shower and turning in for the night.

Nothing was out of the ordinary when I went to sleep that night. I woke up with a start, though, not able to immediately tell what time it was, nor what had woken me.

“Hello, Alessia.”

I nearly jumped ten feet in the air. The high-pitched, clear voice had scared me. It was Jane – one of the Volturi guard. She had let herself in - through my now wide-open window, I supposed - and was now sitting at the edge of my bed.

“Come with me, please,” she said in a way that made it obvious her request was not a suggestion. I got out of bed, trying to shake off the sleepiness. She left through my front door, pausing in the street for me to follow. “You might want to leave a note for your landlord that you won’t be back. We can arrange to collect your things later,” she said over her shoulder before I was out the door.

I walked back to my kitchen, grabbed a pen and ripped a piece of paper out of a nearby notebook, writing exactly what I had been told.

“Where are we going?” I asked, fear creeping into my voice.

Jane didn’t look back at me, but I could feel her smirk. “Back to the castle. Where else?” She giggled to herself.

I resisted the urge to gulp. Was this it? Was I going to be vampire food? Or was I going to become one of them? Either way, I could tell my life was about to change dramatically.

She was quiet the whole way back to the castle, not giving anything away. We walked through the castle to the throne room, which looked ominous in the moonlight. The castle was eerily quiet. Another receptionist, a younger girl named Lucia, was waiting there too. She looked as terrified as I felt, her skin almost as pale as the vampires who we served. I noticed Alec, Jane’s brother, lurking under one of the windows.

Jane turned to us, smirking. “Congratulations. You’re two of the rare humans who actually might have what it takes to join us.”

She was on me in a second. Before I could process what was happening she cradled my head in her hands, almost caressing me. She tilted my head upwards, exposing my neck. Lucia screamed, and I was sure Alec was doing the same to her.

Jane sunk her teeth into my neck, and the pain began.


	2. Colours everywhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessia makes the change and adapts to life as a newborn vampire.

I was in the middle of an inferno.

It was the only way I could even come close to describing the pain I was in. All consuming, blazing fire raged through every fibre of my being. 

Surely this is what Christians meant when they envisioned burning in hell.

Every cell that made up my body blazed with searing pain, a pain that I was certain would never end.

They’d said that turning into a vampire hurt, but this wasn’t anything close to what I’d imagined.

I didn’t have any sense of time, had no idea how long I was writhing around in pain for. I luckily never screamed, though I easily could have. I wasn’t aware of anything that was happening in the real world around me.

Eventually, the pain started subsiding, beginning to fade from my extremities. It felt like it was all gathering into my chest, one final push of venom that would finally stop my heart. I was becoming more aware, hearing footsteps and faint, far-off voices. It sounded like someone else was still screaming, too.

The pain receded further, replaced with a dry sensation in my throat that was almost as bad as the burning had been.

I felt my heartbeat race faster and faster, until it stopped with a final, ominous thud.

I opened my eyes, looking around frantically. I was still in the castle, in the room Jane had led me to before she’d bitten me. Lucia let out a scream, then quieted. She laid still for a few moments, but snapped up just as I had. She looked at me, as terrified and confused as I must have been.

“They’re awake,” someone - Jane, I thought, though her voice had a more musical tone to my new vampire ears - outside the room said.

“Excellent,” Heidi replied. “I’ve got a few snacks for them.”

With that, the doors opened. Before we could race through them, about half-a-dozen people were thrown in the room with us. They screamed, terrified at the sight of us.

The dryness in my throat swelled as I caught the scent of the humans cowering near the door they had just been pushed through. The smell was sweet, all their scents mixing in together. I’d never smelled anything like it, and my thirst quickly overruled any hesitation I might have had.

I jumped across the room without even thinking about it, landing on one of the men. The rest screamed, running away from us. I heard Lucia snarl and collide with another one of them as I sunk my teeth into my first victims neck and drank.

The blood was an immediate relief, making the dryness disappear. It was gone all too quickly. With a frustrated growl, I discarded the corpse and settled on another human who was futilely attempting to escape the room. I quickly drained two more. 

Lucia had drained two, leaving only one more. The man was whimpering, cowering by the dais. “Please,” he begged. His voice was barely a whisper, but it sounded clear as day to me. 

We lunged for him at the same time.

The hairs on the back of my arms prickled, sensing the threat of the other new vampire encroaching on my prey. I snarled, earning a growl in return. I was between Lucia and the man, who was now screaming. I bared my teeth again, warning her to back off. She rushed forward, wanting to take the last human for myself. I collided into her, slamming her across the room. She hit one of the pillars in the middle of the room and fell to the floor. 

I was on the man before she could make another move.

Jane, Chelsea, and Alec entered the room once they heard we were done. Chelsea carried two sets of light grey robes. 

I took them in, seeing them for the first time with my new eyes. Everything seemed so much sharper, enhanced than it had when I was human. I wondered what I looked like? I looked down, examining my arms and hands. They were much more pale than they had been, and all the scratches and scars they had once held had been wiped away, cleared up by the venom.

“Welcome to the volturi,” Jane said in the same musical voice I had recognized from earlier. Chelsea gave Lucia and I each a robe, which we donned eagerly.

Something else seemed off about everyone else now too. Everyone in the room had a colour swirling around them. Jane’s was dark and cloudy, matching Alec’s perfectly. I couldn’t help but notice it was precisely the shade of the cloaks they wore - their loyalty to the Volturi went deep. Heidi had a lovely, mellow beige tone surrounding her. It radiated calm and beauty, which I supposed fit her nicely. I did notice flecks of the dark gray radiating from Jane and Alec within her colour, too.

I looked over to Lucia. She had a dark blue colour, reminding me of the colour of the deep sea. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“Does everyone always have those colours around them?” I asked. “Woah.” 

My voice sounded completely different than I remembered. It was strong, clear and musical, though it was nowhere near as high-pitched as Janes had been.

“Colours?” Jane asked. “No, we don’t see colours around us. What do you see?”

“You and Alec are dark gray, like your cloaks.”

She squinted, looking confused. “And? What does that mean?”

“It means you’re loyal to the Volturi down to your very core. Nothing would shake it.”

Jane smiled, looking delighted with my response. “We’ve never had an aura seer before,” she commented. “Aro will be pleased.”

“Are we going to see him?”

“Not yet,” Alec replied. “We brought in these suckers so you could get your thirst under control, but you’re going to want to hunt again soon. I bet you’re already thirsty again.”

I assessed. There was a little dryness creeping into my throat, but not anywhere near as bad as it was when I first woke up.

I got distracted again, now fascinated by the tapestries that hung behind the dais. I could make out each thread in them, every subtle difference in colour. “Pay attention,” Jane snapped, bringing our attention back to us.

“You can’t hunt in the city, of course but we will show you the tunnel through the castle that leads outside of the city.”

I only need to be shown it once - my memory was now perfect, and I would be able to memorize the complicated path through the castle with no problem.

They set us off with a warning to be discrete, and to return once we were done.


	3. Marching orders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 8 months after Alessia is changed into a vampire, she is given her first big mission with the Volturi guard.

“Ah, welcome my dear!” Aro greeted me from his seat on the dais. Caius and Marcus sat to his sides. They all had a main colour I couldn’t quite name, but it denoted their age and experience. It was darker than Jane and Alec, but not cloudy. All of them had other colours swirling though - Marcus had flecks of a dull gray, denoting what I felt was total boredom or apathy. Caius had streaks of brilliant red, indicating hostility and anger.

“Hello, Aro,” I told him, and greeted the other masters in turn.

“How are we doing?”

“Well,” I told him pleasantly. “I’ve done much learning about my gift.” 

I had initially had a hard time interpreting what everyone's colours meant. Some were intuitive, like Alec and Jane. Others were not so easy.

“May I?” he asked, extending his hand.

I placed my hand in his, obliging. In just a moment, he would know everything I had learned.

It turned out that aura reading was, actually, highly subjective and relied a lot on the readers intuition. It seemed to me that the colours typically highlighted that particular persons most defining attributions or characteristics. The colours that were interspersed usually indicated their mood, or what was weighing on their mind.

It had been really disorienting first, but I felt more at ease reading people the more I got used to all the colours.

“Wonderful! You have quite the talent, my young one. And such control, too - I’ve rarely seen a newborn with such control. Rarely, but not never.”

Jane, Alec, Demitri, Felix and Lucia walked into the room then, but Aro ignored them, keeping his attention on me. “There is one more newborn that I knew, years back, who had even more self control than you, in North America. Her name is Bella Cullen.”

The older members of the guard hissed at the mention of her name. Aro gestured to them, willing them to calm themselves. “She belongs to a talented coven of vampires who lead an...alternative lifestyle, shall we say. They only feed on wildlife, never on humans. They fancy themselves vegetarians.”

I considered a few things at once. One, why would these Cullens want to deprive themselves of human blood? And two, why was Aro telling me about them? And why did the guard have such an adverse reaction to them?

“They have some exceptional talent among them. Young Bella, as I told you, has extreme self-control. But she has another gift - a shield, we call it, that protects from powers such as Jane and Alec’s.” The two growled lowly, clearly upset by this fact. I could tell by her aura that Jane enjoyed using her gift a little too much. “And Edward, who can read anyone’s mind as long as they are close to them. But most of all, Alice. Her ability to see the future has never been seen before - a truly unique talent. 

“We had a...misunderstanding, we’ll call it, with the Cullens years ago. We thought they had created an immortal child, you see. The rest of the details are unimportant, but we were proven wrong and quickly returned to Volterra once it was cleared up. But there was another reason that we had met with the Cullens - I had hoped to convince Edward, Bella and Alice to join us.

“They declined, of course,” Aro snarled, finishing his story. Everyone’s colours had begun to swirl together, clearly upset at the mention of the Cullens.

“But we have a shield of our own now, that operates very similarly to Bella’s,” he said, smiling almost manically towards Lucia. Where Bella’s shield was mental though, Lucia’s was physical. If she didn’t want anyone to find her, she could simply disappear, blending in with her surroundings. If she was touching someone, it could work for them, too.  
A red flashed through his colours - a deeper red than the anger of Cauis’. This was more a colour of desire, of lust. 

“And I believe that you are what we have been waiting for, my dear,” Aro continued, still beaming at Lucia. “With your talent, I believe we can...persuade the Cullens to join us, one way or another.”

He turned to address all of us. “You will all travel to North America, back to that dreary little town the Cullens reside in. You will be able to use Lucia to sneak up on them. And you will either bring them back of their own free will, or by my will. Kill whoever you must, but bring Alice, Bella, and Edward to me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, master,” we all replied as one, bowing. 

“Good! They have evaded my invitation to join us for far too long. My patience runs thin - I will have what I want!”

“Do not delude yourselves into thinking this will be easy,” Caius cautioned. “They are a strong, willful coven, and will not come quietly. Nor will the others let them go without a fight. And their damnable shapeshifters.”

“Shapeshifters?” I asked, though I was not at all surprised to learn that they existed, too.

“Yes,” Caius spat. “A native tribe that live near the Cullen territory who can transform into giant, powerful wolves. They can rip the bones from your body easily with their teeth. I expect they will fight for the Cullens as well. Please, destroy them if the opportunity at all presents itself.”

The others, who had been there during the last confrontation, nodded.

“Go hunt. We leave tonight,” Jane instructed, turning and leaving the room. Aro looked pleased.

“This is...a rather unusual method of acquisition,” Alec commented, briefly explaining to Lucia and I how it usually worked. Usually the charges against the coven would be either completely false or greatly exaggerated. Aro, in all his benevolence, would single one or two talented members of the coven out and claim they were particularly repentant, or innocent, and ‘offer’ them a spot in the Volturi. Chelsea would sway their allegiances away from their former coven, and they would then join the guard.

This situation was a lot different - kidnapping, in essence. We would arrive quietly, carry out our orders, and disappear just as quietly. No fanfare or farce of a trial this time.

In any case, we were all prepared to carry out Aro’s orders.


	4. A secret best kept

We swam across the Atlantic ocean, leaving at night as Jane had ordered.

The ocean and its currents were rough, and it took us a couple of days to cross over to North America. It wouldn’t have taken us that long if we hadn’t encountered a strong hurricane in the middle of it. Jane seethed, not liking to have to deal with the giant swells and the undertows that would have swept us away if we weren’t so strong. Even with as strong as we were, we were having a rough enough time battling the ocean.I pitied any human who had gotten caught in an undertow. Eventually we were past the hurricane, and landed on the shore of a state Demitri told us was called Maine. We stayed out of the sight of humans, and began making our way west towards Washington.

We still had about another 3000 miles to travel until we reached the Cullen residence, by Demitri’s estimation. We didn’t seem to be in any rush, stopping frequently to hunt. Jane reminded Lucia and I to keep it inconspicuous, only picking off those who didn’t look like they’d be missed.

Our little group reached the rainy town of Forks, Washington a couple of days after we had arrived on the continent.

“We’ll observe for a couple of days,” Jane told us. We were hiding in the forest, just barely able to see into the mansion the Cullens apparently called home. It was modern, much more comfortable looking than the castle I called home. “We need to come up with a plan, see if it’s possible to separate the ones we want from the rest. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll all go hunting together, never to return.” She smirked and her aura swirled, delighted with whatever thoughts she had come up with.

So observe we did. We stayed far enough away that they wouldn’t catch our scent, or put them on alert.

I sniffed, nearly retching at the stench that burned my nose. We had come across it a few times as we moved around, but it had never been this fresh. “What is that smell?” I gagged.

“That would be the shapeshifters Caius told you about,” Alec replied, wrinkling his own face. “Foul smelling dogs.” 

I agreed.

I observed the Cullen’s auras as we waited to make our move. 

The first thing I realized was the stark contrast between their colours and the Volturi’s. 

The Cullens all had a golden glow encompassing their auras, and their colours were intricately interwoven into it. They were all surrounded by goodness, and something more - humanity.

Carlisle, their leader, radiated a brilliant, almost angelic white with mixed in with the sheen of gold. It meant he was good, and pure. Esme, his wife, had a lovely beige that seemed almost warmer than Heidi’s, emanating love and compassion.

I focused on the ones that Aro wanted us to bring back. Unlike the others, Alice’s colours changed often. Due to her visions, I guessed. I couldn’t get a feel for all of them. Her aura seemed to be tingling, as if warning her about something. “It seems like she knows something’s up,” I told Jane, reporting my findings.

She snarled. “So be it. It’s too late for them to do anything about it, anyways.”

Jasper, Alice’s mate, similarly felt like a rolling wave of emotions. It was almost dizzying to look at.

Edward’s aura seemed thoughtful, curious. I supposed that was fitting due to his telepathy.

“I can’t get anything from Bella at all,” I growled in frustration. I could see her in the open living room, reading a book, but no glow at all surrounded her.

Jane nodded, as she had assumed that would be the case.

Rosalie’s aura was gold on gold - beauty, all the way. And a little bit of pride. Even for a vampire, I had to admit she was exceptionally good looking. Her partner, Emmett, broadcast great strength through his aura.

The more I knew about the Cullens, the more my readings of them made sense. Jane gave me the rundown on all of them, and everything in their auras seemed to track with what she was saying. She had left out one thing, though - just how good and pure the Cullens actually were.

Are these readings only a self-fulfilling prophecy, though? I asked myself. Am I just making up what the colours mean to match up with what Jane said? I didn’t think so. Jane had never once made the Cullens out to be good vampires - the complete opposite, as a matter of fact. But their colours said otherwise.

The stark contrast between the golden Cullens and the Volturi meant something else, too.

It meant the Cullens, the ones Aro wanted under his control the most, were in no way compatible with the Volturi lifestyle.

I mused over this new realization. What would it mean? 

The Cullens, as Aro suspected, would have to be forced to join us against their will. They would resist with everything they had. Their incompatibility meant they could never exist as members of the Volturi - the two groups were just too fundamentally different. And they would try to escape Aro’s clutches if he did somehow get his hands on them.

What would Jane do with this information? 

Aro wanted Alice, Bella and Edward alive, to become his subjects. Jane, however, was a little more irrational. If I told her about this revelation she might see fit to just eliminate all of the Cullens here and now. I was willing to bet on it.

I balked at the idea - how could we destroy such pure, lovely souls? It would be a crime, I decided.

I had to keep it to myself.


	5. Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessia warns the Cullens about the impending attack.

I really didn’t know what to do.

I was conflicted. On the one hand, I was a member of the Volturi and it was my job to carry out the masters orders. But on the other, the Cullens were so pure, so good. They didn’t deserve to have part of their family - because they really were a family, not just a coven - ripped apart from them. And they didn’t deserve to lose their lives trying to stop us from getting to those that Aro wanted.

I had to figure out some way to warn them, some way to give them a heads up.

We’d heard them talking. Alice knew of Aro’s plans to return for them, but couldn’t see anything else about it - Jane suspected that we had Lucia’s power to thank for that. What Alice was able to see wouldn’t be enough to prevent us from sneaking up on them.

But how could I reach the Cullens without the rest of the guard noticing? And would they even take my warning seriously? I doubted it - they seemed to have thought they were done dealing with the Volturi.

The conflict must have been showing on my face.

We sat around the night before we launched our assault, finalizing our plans. “I want to remind everyone here that it would be...unwise to deviate from our plans,” Jane began with a pointed look at me. She was definitely onto me.

I could feel myself second-guessing my doubts. We weren’t doing anything bad, right? We were just carrying out the orders our leader had given us. It would have been wrong of me to go against my creators.

“We’ll go tomorrow afternoon, when they’re at their most quiet. We’ll make it as quick as we can. And for the love of god, please try not to get caught and killed by them,” she continued. “Lets go hunt. I’m thirsty.”

We got up and ran towards Seattle.

We all split up, agreeing to meet back where we had been observing the Cullens. Why had I had such a change of heart about giving them a heads up, when I’d been so sure it was the right thing to do?

Chelsea, of course. She’d used her powers to strengthen my sense of loyalty to them.

Now that she was farther away, it didn’t seem to be working nearly as well. 

I had to hunt, quickly. I wouldn’t be able to do as much as I wanted, not if I wanted to run and warn the Cullens before the others were done hunting.

I found one homeless man, quickly fed, and begun racing back before anyone could catch me. I was still thirsty, but I didn’t have enough time to hunt anyone else, even if it didn’t take me long to return to Forks and follow our scent back to our meeting spot.

The Cullens were waiting for me when I got there.

Emmett, the huge vampire, and Jasper, were waiting outside for me, flanked by a massive black wolf and a shaggy-haired auburn wolf. “Alice saw you coming,” he said casually. The wolves bared their teeth, putting me on notice. I half-crouched, preparing to defend myself if I had to. “But she doesn’t know what you want to warn us about.”

“I’m with the Volturi,” I told him. I felt oddly calm, a huge change from the fear and anxiety I’d been feeling on my way here. “Aro sent us here to bring Alice, Edward and Bella back to him. I needed to warn you.”

Emmett grinned menacingly at my news. “So, the Volturi have suddenly decided to make a reappearance, have they? About time.”

The wolves were looking at each other, grumbling, as if having a conversation of their own.

“Let her come in,” a voice, Carlisle, chimed from inside the house. “She should tell us everything.”

The two relaxed their positions, and opened the huge glass doors. Jasper looked back, expecting me to follow. I did, following them into the huge, open living room where a group of 8 vampires who I’d been told were my enemy stood.

There was a 9th person there, too. She wasn’t like the others, though. I could detect a faint flutter of a heartbeat coming from her, heard the blood pulsing through her veins. The thought made me thirsty. What was she? Not a vampire, but not fully human, either. 

Her blood smelled delicious.

“She needs to hunt, now,” Alice told the group, stopping everyone in their tracks. “Carlisle, Edward, you have to go anyways. We can wait until you get back.”

Edward agreed, rushing to the door. He grabbed me by the arm, practically dragging me out of the mansion. I had unconsciously lowered myself into a crouch, ready to leap across the room at the half-human. “We do things a little differently around here,” he explained.

Carlisle joined us. “I take it Aro told you of our...unusual diet?”

I confirmed, nodding. “He said it’s why you have golden eyes instead of red. He said it makes you weaker than us.”

He smirked, amused. “I don’t know if he has that part quite right. But yes. We only drink animals around here, and I’ll ask you to do the same if you intend to stick around, however temporarily.”  
I still didn’t get the appeal of just feeding on animals, but the way he asked made it sound like a totally reasonable request. “Of course,” I told him.

We ran a distance away - I made sure to warn them to head the opposite direction of Seattle. They listened, and we ended up hunting a pack of deer. It wasn’t quite as satisfying as human blood, I thought, but it was enough to get my thirst well in hand.

We returned about two hours later, not wanting to waste much time.

“Alice?” Edward asked as we walked up to the house.

I could see her standing at one of the wall-to-wall windows. She had a far off look on her face, but nodded. 

“She’s got it under control now. Bring her in.”


	6. A twist in events

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessia tells the Cullens of the Volturi's plans.

“Have you seen anything?” Edward asked.

“No,” Alice replied. “Now that we know they’re there, I can watch them. The Volturi won’t move against us until they can come up with a different plan.”

“Can I ask a question?” I asked. “Aro said you had a... misunderstanding with the Volturi years ago. What happened?”

Renesmee, the half-human, stood up and walked over to me. “Here, I can show you.” She grabbed my hand, like Aro would to read my thoughts. But instead of her reading my mind, she showed me what was in hers. She showed me the clearing that rested close to the Cullens house, the arrival of the Volturi and their attempts to start a fight with the Cullens and the allies that they had gathered.

I took a few minutes to process it. “No wonder Aro was so angry,” I replied. “That kind of confrontation would humiliate them.”

“The Volturi don’t appreciate being stood up against,” Carlisle agreed.

“So what do we do?” Rosalie asked. “Gather allies again like last time?”

Alice snapped back to reality, shaking off the far-away look that had been on her face. “That’s an option,” she replied.

“Not a good one,” Edward muttered under his breath. “It’ll end in a bloodbath.” Now he smirked.

Carlisle frowned. “Does it really have to come to violence?”

Alice, looked resigned. “Maybe not this time,” she replied. “But they won’t stop coming for us, Carlisle. They’re always going to want Edward and Bella and me. He won’t stop until he gets us.

“If we want to avoid a bloodbath, we’re going to need an even bigger gathering than we had the last time. And it might still come to that,” she warned.

“We need an army,” Jasper said, looking like he was already preparing himself for the possibility of war.

“Jas, no,” Alice replied, looking upset. “You can’t. Please.”

“It’s the only way we can chase them off again,” he told her, gently grabbing her hand.

“He’s right,” Edward agreed.

“Fine. Then I’m going with you,” Alice protested, glaring at Jasper with a scowl on her face.

“Going where? Are you leaving us again?” Bella asked, looking heartbroken.

  
“Jasper wants to travel South to find Maria,” Edward replied, reading his and Alice’s thoughts. “She still has an army, about 30. They’re well controlled - she doesn’t have too many brand-new ones with her now, but they’re still remarkable fighters.”

Jasper turned to face Alice now, stroking her cheek. “You can’t come with me,” he told her. “You need to stay here to keep an eye on the Volturi.”

If vampires could cry, Alice would have. She began to protest but she was interrupted by someone walking in the front door.

“Did you say Volturi?” the man, clearly not a vampire, asked. He was tall, and his tan skin nearly rippled with muscle. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, so his abs were on display for everyone to see.

His scent hit me the same second he noticed me, a new vampire, in the room.

I hissed, jumping back to the far wall. “What is that doing here?” I spat, trying not to breathe in the foul scent that was radiating from the werewolf.

“Jacob is the leader of the wolves from the Quileute pack,” Renesmee explained, walking over to him and taking his hand. She quickly gave him a rundown of what was happening.

“Wait, they’re here?” he confirmed. “I need to tell the packs. I’ll be back.” He ran out the door at full speed. Seconds later, I heard the sound of clothes shredding followed by a high-pitched howl.

Renesmee sighed, looking slightly amused. “I’ll go get some new clothes for him.” She disappeared upstairs.

Alice and Jasper had also disappeared, but we could still hear them arguing about Jasper going to this Maria woman alone. I gathered that they had a history together, one that greatly upset Alice. Jasper was right, though - she needed to stay here and keep an eye on the Volturi. She knew it, but she didn’t like it.

They discussed the plan some more before he left, using all the information I could give them.

“Do we leave?” Bella asked. “We’ve been in Forks so long now. It’s almost time to move, anyways.”

“She’s right,” Rosalie said. “It’s almost time. And Esme just designed that lovely place in Maine for us.” Edward, Esme, and Carlisle agreed.

Emmett and Jasper thought differently, though. “We can’t outrun them, not with Demetri’s tracking powers,” Jasper said. “We have to make a stand, here and now. We may as well do it on familiar territory. We need to round up whoever we can, as soon as we can. Get to work on that while I go talk to Maria.”

It was a good point, and it was decided the Cullens would stay until the confrontation was over at the very least.

Jasper left, giving Alice a passionate kiss goodbye and promising to return soon. She promised she’d be keeping an eye on him, too, and would be there if he was in any danger.

The rest of the Cullens, minus Alice, started making calls. Alice kept Renesmee and I updated. “The Denali clan will come,” Alice told us, seeing their decision as they made it. “They’ll make it here in time.”

She named a few others, but saw that except for two nomads named Peter and Charlotte, would not be able to make it in time. Still, it was nice to know reinforcements were coming. They would know what happened here, if it came to that, at the very least. Maybe they’d be able to do something about it.

Jacob arrived back, with a few more wolves. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

The wolves balked when they noticed me, as Jacob had. “Who is this?” one of the larger ones growled, trembling.

Jacob placed his hands on the guy’s shoulders. “Paul, calm down. She came to warn the Cullens about the attack. The Volturi changed her, but she left them.”

“She could be a rat, giving us false info,” Paul spat, not calming down.

“Alice would see that, Edward would see that,” Jacob tried to reason. Paul’s trembles got worse. He was mad enough that I could tell he couldn’t be reasoned with.

He lunged at me, knocking me through one of the wall-length glass windows in the kitchen. We crashed in the woods outside. I snarled, getting ready to fight, when a sharp “NO!” came from one of the other wolves.

Another member of Jacob’s pack had somehow jumped between us, placing himself between Paul and me. He looked younger than the others - around 19, I guessed. He was only a few inches shorter than Jacob, and almost as muscled.

“Back off, Seth,” Paul warned, teeth bared. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“If you hurt her you will,” Seth pleaded.

If you hurt her, you will? I repeated in my mind. What the hell does that mean? I was plenty strong, certain I could hold my own against Paul, even in wolf form. I didn’t need some knight in shining armour to do it for me.

Paul glowered, but backed off. “Damn it kid,” he snarled. “Well done.” Apparently unable to stop himself, he launched past us, turning into a wolf right then and there. He looked at me, snarled once, and took off into the woods.

Seth turned to me, and I got a good look at him for the first time. His black hair was a little on the shaggy side, though not as long as Jacob’s. His eyes were dark brown, reminding me of the colour of dark chocolate. Honestly, it looked like Jacob and Seth could have been related. I read his aura quickly - kind, like Carlisle, with a little vulnerability and an almost childlike naivete mixed in. And something else, that seemed to be at the forefront of his mind. Love?

“Are you okay?” he asked, way more concerned than I expected him to be.

“I’m fine,” I confirmed. He came over to me, looking me over just in case. “Are you? You’re...pretty freaked out.”

“It’s a long story,” Jacob said, walking through the gaping hole the shattered window had left. “Come back in, and we’ll explain.” Seth looked sheepish now, but followed me inside.

Jacob and Seth took turns explaining some of the old Quileute legends, including the origins of how their forefathers first became wolves. The wolves, apparently, had an ability to ‘imprint’. Renesmee showed me, rather than having the boys struggle to explain it. Jacob had imprinted on her, so she knew firsthand what it meant.

“Oh,” I gasped, feeling all of the feelings that apparently came with an imprint. They truly ran the gamut - a feeling of loneliness, despair when an imprinted pair was separated, and an almost euphoric elation every second they were together. “But, why me?”

“We have no idea how the imprinting thing actually works,” Jacob admitted. “The legend goes that we’re supposed to imprint with the ones who give us the strongest chance of carrying on the pack, but there seem to be exceptions to that rule.”

Renesmee rolled her eyes. “Jacob, please. We don’t know if I can reproduce or not.”

“And you won’t find out for a long time yet!” Bella shouted from upstairs, making Edward chuckle. Renesmee laughed.

“You’re the first vampire any tribe member has imprinted on,” Jacob said. “We didn’t even think it was possible, since vampires and wolves are so incompatible.”

“Maybe that’s changing,” Seth said. “Maybe since we’ve been acclimating to living in the same proximity as vampires, the rules are changing. We don’t see them as enemies anymore. Not these vampires, anyways.”

“Maybe,” Jacob agreed.

“How are you going to deal with the smell?” Rosalie asked. She didn’t seem snarky about it, rather genuinely curious. “I know we don’t smell good to you, and its the same for us.”

I said “he doesn’t smell” at the same time Seth replied “she doesn’t smell.” Everyone in the room turned to look at us, their faces question marks. I hadn’t really noticed that he didn’t smell like the rest of the wolves before, but another sniff confirmed it.

“Huh,” Jacob replied.

“Stranger things have happened around here,” Edward muttered, chuckling to himself.

“Do I still smell to you?” Jacob asked. I sniffed again, in his direction.

I thought about it for a moment. “You don’t smell quite as bad. Its still lingering, though.”

The vampires and Jacob mused over it for a second, while Seth and I just looked at each other. “You’d think we were the freakiest people in this house,” he joked.

I chuckled, appreciating the joke. “Right? Like we’re not surrounded by all kinds of freaky super powerful vampires,” I joked back, earning a laugh from the rest of the house.

“Leah, Paul, and Brady are coming back,” Edward told us. “I guess it’s time to fill everyone in on what’s happening.”

Seth groaned. “Not Leah,” Seth groaned. “She’s my sister. And she’s not exactly going to be thrilled that I imprinted on you.”

“She’ll have to deal,” Jacob said. “It’s not her business.”

Seth nodded as we heard three wolves phase - a sound I was starting to recognize now - and walk up the path to the house.

I frowned as I saw Leah’s colours. None of them were particularly happy, and they were all stormy, swirling violently around each other. She was angry, but she was also in a lot of pain. It seemed she had been for a long time. “Oh!” I gasped, looking at each of the wolves. A silver, barely visible thread connected Jacob, Leah, and Seth. A similar one connected Brady too. The threads didn’t stop there though, extending past where I could see.

“What?” Seth asked.

“Your auras, you’re all connected,” I replied, smiling. “Well, you, Jacob and Leah are. And so are Paul and Brady.”

They looked confused. “I can see people’s auras...they’re kind of like, colours, that surround you. It says a lot about a person, who they are at their very core,” I explained. It earned a few weird looks from the wolves, but Seth nodded as if it made perfect sense. “Yours are connected by like a thin, silver line. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“When we’re wolves, we can hear each others thoughts,” Seth told me. “It’s how we communicate. We have two packs - we’re in Jacobs. Paul and Brady are in Sam’s.”

“The lines make sense then. They must be reaching out to your other pack mates, too.”

Alice flew in, interrupting the musing. “Jasper found Maria. No decisions yet.”

“And the Volturi?” Carlisle asked in his gentle manner.

“I watched them too, but I couldn’t find anything concrete. They’re waiting for us to make the first move, now that their cover is blown,” she reported. She snapped out of her vision, and looked straight at me. “They’re going to kill you, you know.”

“Like hell!” Seth roared.

“It’s okay,” I told him, placing a hand on his arm. “Nobody here is going to let anything happen.”

He took a minute to process what I was saying, but seemed to agree. He stayed close to me, which should have felt a little bit awkward since we’d literally just met, but it was comforting. The imprint was at work, I guessed.

“There are two ways this can end right now, without Maria deciding anything,” Alice continued. “They’ll come for us once Jasper returns empty handed, demand we hand her over, and leave us alone when we do. They’ll be back, though. Like I said before, they’ll never stop. Or, we say no to handing her over, and it turns into the bloodbath I saw already. I don’t know how that ends because the wolves are involved.”

“We can’t just hand her back to them!” Seth protested, now putting a protective arm around me.

“Of course not, Seth,” Edward reassured him. “We don’t do that in this family.”

Family? Edward’s casual use of the word had surprised me. I hadn’t known them for very long, but already it seemed like they had accepted me, considered me to be one of them. It was a nice feeling – I hadn’t belonged to a family for a long time.

Alice nodded. “That choice is made, then. Now all we need to do is wait for Maria.”


	7. Waiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final preparations are made, and help arrives. Alessia learns more about her powers.

The Denali clan showed up before Jasper could return with Maria and the other vampires.

“Kate and Tanya are older than Carlisle,” Edward explained to me before their arrival. “They had another sister, Irina, but she was killed by the Volturi when they came to confront us.”

Seth, who had been hanging around the Cullens house whenever he wasn’t on patrol, nodded. “Oh, man that was terrifying. I thought we were all gonna die. And all because we killed that one stupid vamp!”

My face turned into a question mark. Seth had killed a vampire?

“My wife had a habit of attracting danger when she was a human,” Edward explained, laughing. “Not long after we met, a group of three vampires came into town and ran into us. Their leader, James, decided that he wanted to hunt and kill Bella – he was a tracker. Anyways, that was a whole fiasco that Bella can tell you about sometime. The short of it is, James was killed. His mate, Victoria, ran away. Laurent, the third, left them and spent some time with our cousins in Denali because he was interested in our lifestyle. He took a great liking to Irina, but failed to mention he was still in contact with Victoria.”

“Laurent returned to Forks at a time when we were…away,” Edward said, grimacing at the memory. “Another story. Not one I’m fond of telling. He found Bella alone, and was going to kill her. The wolves – only five of them at that point, I think – intervened, and killed Laurent.” I was relieved that Seth hadn’t been a wolf yet, and hadn’t been involved in killing one of my kind – I hated to think of him in that kind of danger.

“Irina, understandably, was upset. Our families only reconciled when the Volturi were coming after us. Irina had come to apologize for her behaviour when she saw Nessie, Bella and Jacob out hunting, and very wrongfully assumed that she was an immortal child. She went straight to the Volturi, and that’s why they came for us. She was killed for giving false witness, as an attempt to provoke us into fighting. Thankfully, it didn’t work.”

We were interrupted by the sound of a car turning up the driveway. “That’s them,” Edward confirmed.

Alice pointed out Tanya, Kate, Garrett, Carmen, and Eleazer as they piled out of the car and greeted the Cullens with hugs. “This is Alessia,” Alice introduced us. “She’s the one who warned us about the Volturi.”

Kate, whose aura reminded me something of a live wire, shook my hand. “Thank you for warning our cousins,” she said solemnly. “The Volturi have taken too many of our family already, and we won’t let it happen again.”

Eleazer looked at me intensely for a second, and his aura changed completely. It wasn’t one solid colour anymore, rather a multifaceted rainbow of colours. It reminded me of how our skin looked in the sunlight. He smirked before nodding his head, and the rainbow colours went away. “An aura reader. Nice. It’s a wonder Aro let you go.”

“How did you know that?” The Cullens knew, obviously, but we hadn’t discussed it with the Denali clan yet.

“I can read other vampires abilities – it was of great use to Aro when I was part of the guard.”

I was surprised that he had been part of them. “Long story,” he shrugged. “I’m sure you understand why I left.”

I nodded. “You didn’t want to participate in their charade of justice anymore.”

“Precisely.”

“Wait a minute – how exactly do you sense abilities?”

“I don’t know…it’s almost like they leave an essence, or a trace around the vamp. Nothing tangible, but enough to tell me what the vamp can do.”

So not terribly dissimilar to my aura seeing then. “When you read vampires, your aura changes. When you looked at me, read my ability, it changed. I think you showed me my aura.”

“Really? Neat,” he replied.

“Can you do me a favour – look at Bella and try to read her?”

He obliged, and his aura went blank. “Huh, that’s cool. Your aura went blank, just like hers.”

He stopped reading, and it went back to its muted, neutral colour. “You’re still learning a lot, aren’t you?”

“I am,” I admitted. “That was interesting. Thanks.”

They got settled in, taking the time to catch up with the Cullens. I gathered that they hadn’t actually visited in person since the last confrontation, and everyone was happy to see each other again.

“Maria and Jasper will be here in two days,” Alice told everyone. “Jasper is going to ask them to wait in the clearing. They’ll hunt elsewhere before they get here. The town will be safe.”

“Can you see what the Volturi are planning?”

“No talking this time. Alec is going to blind us all and Felix is going to kill all of us that Aro doesn’t want while the others take the rest of us. Chelsea is going to try and strip our bonds and bind us to the Volturi instead.”

“I’m not going to let that happen,” Bella scoffed. “They know I can shield us all.”

I wondered what that would do to my ability – if Bella was shielding someone else, would I be able to read them? The battle wouldn’t be the right time to ask, of course, but it was a question I set aside to ask after the Volturi were gone.

“You’re their first target,” Alice replied quietly. “We’re going to have to act really fast once we see them – protect Bella for long enough that she can shield us all. If they get to her, it’s going to all go wrong.”

Emmett whooped, pumping his arm in the air. “Hell yeah! I’m ready to kick some Volturi ass!” A rumble of growls came from the woods – I assumed that was the wolves agreeing with the large vampire.

Alice looked at me again. “They’re thinking about changing their mind about you – Jane wants to bring you to the Masters and let them deal with you themselves. If they do, it won’t be pretty.”

A snarl came from outside, and I assumed it was Seth voicing his displeasure.

Edward’s aura flickered with angry red slashes for a second. “That won’t happen, Seth,” he said reassuringly.

“Did you read his mind just then?”

“I did,” he replied.

“Your aura flickered, just briefly, when you did it. It kind of adopts the mood of whoever you’re reading.”

I was learning all kinds of things about my powers today. I didn’t see how it was particularly useful – I guess I could detect lying, or when someone was in distress. Or up to something. But it wasn’t really my place to announce that kind of thing, was it? It wasn’t like I could tell _what_ someone was lying about, or trying to hide. Only that they were lying or trying to hide something.

“Jasper will be back shortly before daybreak,” Alice said longingly, interrupting my musings. “It’s going to start not long after that – I don’t want Maria here for any longer than necessary.”

“Do you think we’ll have the numbers?” Bella asked her. She put on a brave face, but her aura showed that she was terrified of what could happen if somehow the Volturi got to them.

Alice nodded. “I think so. More would be ideal, but no one else will show up until later.” She cocked her head to the side. “Peter and Charlotte are here. I’ll go greet them.”

She went outside to greet the two newcomers, who were less than happy that Jasper was bringing Maria back with him. They argued briefly, but Alice managed to convince the two that they needed Maria’s numbers to stop the Volturi. They begrudgingly agreed to stay but were adamant that they wouldn’t linger to talk with Maria afterwards.

“What’s the deal with Maria, anyways?” I asked. She seemed to bring out a lot of negative feelings with the group.

“She created Jasper,” Esme told me. “His time with her was…traumatic, to say the least. He still has a hard time dealing with that part of his life, and he doesn’t like talking about it much. Peter and Charlotte were also created by her, and they’re the reason he was able to get out of that life and make his way to Alice.”

I got the sense that she was sugar-coating it, but it was enough for me to understand why no one here liked her. I didn’t want to upset Esme further by prying more about it.

Seth was due out on patrol for the night, so I settled in with one of Bella’s books. It was oddly peaceful. Edward was teaching Nessie how to play the piano, with Bella looking on. Alice sat on the couch, quietly reaching out to see if anything would change in the next couple of hours. Her aura was relatively quiet – as quiet as a vision seers could be, I supposed. Carlisle and Esme were in his office, I think finalizing Esme’s design for their next home. Rosalie and Emmett had gone out to hunt but were still nearby.

It seemed like the night passed in no time at all. “They’re almost here – 15 minutes out,” Alice said suddenly, bringing all of us to attention. “We have to time meeting up with them just right. If we’re too early and have to wait for them the Volturi will attack us and we’ll lose. Be ready to leave in…” she paused for a second, calculating exactly when we would need to leave to meet them.

“7 minutes.”


End file.
